Fractured Souls(77)

“Someone, actually,” Alex tells her, exchanging a glance with me as he holds my hand below the table. “Her name is Jocelyn Lucas.”
I can tell she knows who we’re talking about by the way her posture briefly stiffens. “Tell me, boy, what is your name?”
“Alex Avery,” Alex says with some hesitance as he runs a finger along the back of my hand.
“Ah, you’re a Keeper.” She continues to thrum her nails against the table, her eyes moving from him to me. I unintentionally cower back and get disciplined for doing so as a thorn enters the center of my back. “And you? What’s your name?”
I lean forward, pushing past the pain, too worried to reach around and pluck the thorn out of my back. “Gemma Lucas.”
She ceases thrumming her fingers. “So you are, what?” she asks. “The daughter of Jocelyn?”
I nod and then breathe inwardly as Alex reaches around and picks the thorn out of my back. “I am,” I say.
“I see.” The Queen muses over something. “What did you expect exactly? That you’d come down here and demand I give you my best slave all because you asked really, really nicely?” Her hollow mouth forms a pout and it’s unsettling to look at.
Alex reaches for his pocket. “We’ve brought something to trade for Jocelyn’s freedom.”
“I can assure you that you have nothing I want,” the Queen replies with her gaunt chin tipped up in arrogance.
Alex slips the flawlessly cut sapphire out and drops it down on the table. “Not even for this?”
She looks shocked, but then she starts to chortle and the chandelier above us shakes and flickers along with the puddles on the ground. The Queen finally stops laughing, wiping tears from her eyes, and then her laughter rapidly shifts to anger.
She pounds her fist on the table and a few of the chairs topple over while the Water Faeries flee. “You think that you can come down here and make a bargain with something the Keepers took from me to begin with?” She rises from her chair, towering over us as she swishes her dress behind her. “How dare you insult me? You are just like your father. Taking whatever you want and doing whatever you please.”
I want to bang my head against the table. It’s ridiculous how Stephan can haunt us when he’s not even here.
“I have been waiting for the day when I’d see your father again.” She strides toward us and reaches us in only a few steps. “So I can settle what he started a long time ago.”
Alex holds her petrifying gaze. “I understand that you have had some issues with my father, but I can assure you that—”
“Silence.” The Queen tips her head back and roars, making the whole room quake. The walls begin to cave in as she pants ravenously and the roof cracks. The power in her is clearly evident and it makes me nervous of what else she can do. “I don’t want to hear excuses. I always swore that one day I’d get even with Stephan, whatever it took, and here you are. It’s the perfect opportunity. A much smaller version of him.” She makes a pinching motion with her boney finger. “However, it’ll still do.”
“He’s not his father,” I interrupt, but then shrink back when the Queen’s attention focuses entirely on me. “A-And he only came down here because I asked him to, so if you want to take this out on anyone, take it out on me.”
The Queen’s face alters from anger to inquisitiveness. She suddenly calms and walks back toward her chair. “You know, Jocelyn never mentioned having a daughter, so I find it peculiar that someone would show up with the son of one of my sworn enemies and claim to be her daughter.”
“Well, I am,” I assure her in a surprisingly steady voice. “And I want to take her back with me.”
“Take her back?” She throws her head back and laughs. “Oh, I’m afraid there’s no way I can do that because you yourself are never leaving.”
“No, we can leave,” I tell her. “I came here through the Ira, and you can’t keep us here—there are laws that say you can’t.”
Her grin deepens and then she swats her hand through the air. I feel a tug on my pocket and the Ira abruptly shoots out and flies across the room, smacking into the wall where it shatters. Shards of teal glass land on the floor and table and I swear I feel pieces of my own heart join them. I leap from my chair, ready to wring her neck and hopefully kill her, but Alex grabs the tail of my shirt and quickly pulls me back down.
“That’s bullshit!” I cry, flipping a piece of glass off my arm. “You can’t do that!”
“I can do whatever I want.” She smiles before motioning her hand around the room. “Now, let me welcome you to your new home.”